Tropical Storm Chantal formed in the tropical Atlantic Ocean late Sunday night (Eastern U.S. time) and has already made its way into the Windward Islands.

The system developed as a strong tropical wave with tropical storm force winds before finally developing a closed circulation late Sunday night, thus bypassing the tropical depression phase and becoming Tropical Storm Chantal straightaway.

Tropical storm conditions are expected in the Windward Islands today and are possible in parts of Puerto Rico tonight into early Wednesday.

Chantal is then expected to affect portions of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Bahamas. (see the latest projected path map below).

A hurricane watch is now posted for a portion of the eastern and southern coast of the Dominican Republic.

Tropical storm warnings are now in effect for Puerto Rico and parts of the Dominican Republic and north coast of Haiti, along with a number of islands in the Lesser Antilles, including Dominica, Saint Lucia, Martinique and Guadeloupe. Several other areas, including southwest Haiti and the southeast Bahamas, are under tropical storm watches. (See the map below for details.)

Residents in the mainland U.S. will have to pay attention to this system. The current forecast takes the center of Chantal over the Bahamas Friday into early Saturday, but given the margin of error in the forecast, parts of Florida could be affected as well at the end of the workweek.